Published at 8th of October 2024 3:10 am

Chapter 1333: The Little Umbrella

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Amidst a large group of warm tourists, Han Suiping was so nervous that a chill ran down his spine.

Every time he got excited and nervous, his body would tremble uncontrollably. He couldn’t suppress it, and his throat felt like it wanted to burp. He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants, only to find them sweaty again.

It wasn’t his first time, but every time, he felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down. How did he end up like this? Could he still turn back? He didn’t know. The thought of being caught and facing the consequences made him want to go home—he even remembered the warmth of his childhood alley, basking in the sun.

As he placed his bag on the X-ray machine’s conveyor belt, he prayed to the heavens, “Please, just let me pass this one more time.”

“Whose bag is this?” a security personnel in a black uniform said, grabbing his bag from the other end of the X-ray machine. “Come over here!”

Han Suiping glanced at the other oblivious tourists. They were all sweating, with smiles on their faces, reattaching their bags as they walked out—outside, there was the boundless blue sea and the joy of a giant cruise ship waiting to set sail.

“It’s mine,” he croaked, his throat dry. “What’s wrong?”

“Take out the contents and show them to me,” the security personnel ordered, tapping his bag with a short stick—indicating his laziness in emptying it by hand.

This was a good sign. Han Suiping feared encountering the overzealous type who would empty his bag and then even pat down the fabric layers with their fingers.

A toiletry kit, a stack of clothes, two books… As he removed each item, the short stick landed on a square-shaped bag.

“What’s this? Is it a computer?”

“No, no,” Han Suiping hastily smiled and said, “I’m an artist, and this is a large sketchbook. Take a look.”

He unzipped it and pulled out a sketchbook. Various colors on the paper formed a landscape, with metal powder cleverly mixed into the pigments, giving it a unique beauty. “You see,” He didn’t dare let the other linger on the sketchbook for too long, quickly pulling out the next small bag, “These are my pigments, brushes, and brush cleaner.”

The security personnel, looking annoyed, waved. “You may pass.”

Han Suiping let out a sharp sigh of relief, only to realize that his back was already dripping with sweat.

Fortunately, it was hot here, so sweating wasn’t unusual. He packed his things again, took out the Sky Journey sign from his pocket, hung it around his neck, and followed the flow of tourists towards the bronze deck where the cruise ship was docked. When he looked back, the security personnel was already checking the next person’s bag—once again, fate spared him.

Some people loved to fish, some loved to play games, some loved to paint, none of these could take lives, but his hobby was different.

He loved the internet.

Han Suiping, along with several hundred other tourists, honestly checked in and boarded the ship. He found his room by ticket number, and as soon as the door was closed, he turned off the lights. The cabins on the ground floor of the cruise ship had no windows. When the lights were turned off, it was as dark as if a person had gone blind, so he opened his eyes wide in the darkness and looked around.

The smoke alarm flashed in the darkness, but there was no other light

In general, monitoring devices weren’t installed in guest rooms unless someone intended to secretly film. Han Suiping feared that someone intending to film women would accidentally capture him and report him. He turned on the light and carefully inspected the room, sighing in relief.

He carefully took out his sketchbook. It took him several weeks to make this fake book, just like those decorative fake books in bookstores, with each page looking very realistic from the outside but hollowed out inside, just big enough to hold a computer and charger. He also had a few friends who were good at drawing and painting. Several color paintings were mixed with metal powder and put on the book’s front. To the naked eye, there was almost no suspicion.

The difficulty lay in how to deal with the X-ray machine.

Most tourists could understand why knives, drugs, and explosives were not allowed on board, but other than Han Suiping, few probably realized why computers weren’t allowed on cruise ships. Once electronic products passed through the X-ray machine, they couldn’t be disguised anymore; to solve this problem, he spent a lot of effort.

He took off the thin cover wrapped around the computer, treasuring it carefully, as it took him several months and a lot of savings. After repeated experiments, he finally made a special coating with barium sulfate, aluminum sheets, glass, and other materials; it had the advantage of blocking the internal structure of the computer while not appearing suspicious on the X-ray machine. Even though he was confident in his creation, he felt like he was having a heart attack when he brought a computer on board for the first time.

Passing through the X-ray machine was just a minor difficulty. The biggest challenge Han Suiping faced when he, unfortunately, developed this hobby that could land him in jail was that there were no wireless signal receivers on any computers on the market.

After the ship set sail, Han Suiping took a shower, ate, and then went on the deck like other tourists. For him, the vast blue sea was just an accessory to every trip; initially, his mind wasn’t on the scenery. But recently, he had become increasingly able to appreciate the grandeur of the sea.

The Xingbang cruise line had a long route, lasting a week at sea, with most of the journey spent in the open sea and outer sea. The route passed by two small islands, and tourists could even disembark and snorkel near the beach—but they couldn’t land, as it was the territory of another country.

Because tourists could catch a glimpse of the beaches of other countries, the Xingbang cruise route was extremely popular and always sold out; Han Suiping had already seen the beaches of other countries four times, which was a heavy burden for his salary.

This hobby not only burned money but also risked his life.

Han Suiping smiled bitterly and lay on the deck chair, flipping through a page of his book. The ship had just set sail, and it wasn’t time yet; his first attempt to go online would have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.

“Is anyone sitting here?” A soft female voice suddenly sounded beside him.

Han Suiping looked up to see a girl in a swimsuit draped in a long coat. She wore large sunglasses, and her hair was still dripping with water from the swimming pool.

“Oh, no one,” he said.

She spread a towel on the other deck chair, smiled at him, and asked, “What book are you reading?”

Although he couldn’t see her upper face, she revealed neat white teeth when she smiled, making her look attractive.

Han Suiping felt uneasy and closed the book, saying, “It’s not a good book—uh, I mean, it’s not an interesting book.”

The girl giggled and asked, “What is it?”

“Here, look,” Han Suiping said, waving the book at her. The title was ‘A Blissful Life Enveloped in Radiance.’ These books were the most abundant in bookstores, filled with positive energy; they were so numerous on the shelves that they either spoke of happiness or beauty, brimming with positivity. They were the least likely to attract attention. He picked one with the best sales, cut the pages off at home, preserved the intact cover and spine, and stuffed the pages of an old book he found in a second-hand store into it.

The girl nodded, losing interest in the book, and lay back on the deck chair to listen to music. Her shapely legs, shiny from the sun, exuded a healthy beauty.

Han Suiping wanted to continue reading but didn’t know if the gaze under the girl’s sunglasses could see his book pages. He thought it would be safer to close the book and return to his room—feeling a bit regretful.

He had been single for several years, and when he met a beautiful girl, he naturally longed and wanted to get close to her and talk to her more. However, safety came first.

The next afternoon, he finally reached it amidst his anxious anticipation.

“The ship has reached the open sea,” the announcement rang through the broadcast, and all the passengers on board became visibly excited, even though the sea was just the sea, with no difference in scenery. Han Suiping knew exactly why he was excited about reaching the open sea, but he couldn’t understand why others were happy. However, that didn’t matter—upon hearing the announcement, he hurried back to his room.

He turned his phone’s music to the highest volume, stuffed the computer under the blanket, and turned it on. The special tune played during startup was drowned out by the rock music.

Under the blanket, after some adjustments, he found his way to the bottom right corner, where there was a small signal icon not found on other computers: three curved lines stacked up, getting longer one by one, resembling a little umbrella or mushroom. The little umbrella was gray, and he clicked on it, and the computer slowly started searching for a signal.

He was sweating and suffocating under the blanket, but the anticipation overwhelmed all discomfort. He patiently waited for a while, and the computer popped a prompt: no signal was found.

This wasn’t right.

His computer accessories were all old, especially the satellite signal receiver, which was a rare find after countless old computers; its sensitivity was a headache, but generally speaking, it should have started receiving satellite signals by the second afternoon after departure.

Was it too old?

Han Suiping held the computer, pacing around the room several times. He thought he was about to succeed several times, but the same discouraging prompt appeared each time.

What’s going on? He wished he could smack it a few times to see if it could be fixed like an old TV.

He looked around the room, suddenly feeling a chill in his heart.

No, he had boarded the Xingbang cruise four times already, always choosing the cheapest room. However, the room interior seemed different—the wall panel color had changed and looked new. He had been preoccupied with going online and hadn’t noticed this major difference right under his nose.

Could it have been renovated with thicker building materials?

“Yeah.” A steward who intercepted him in the corridor after he rushed out answered, “It was renovated last month, and the wall panels were replaced. Doesn’t it look much nicer?”

‘Nice, my foot,’ Han Suiping cursed. His nearly dead old signal receiver couldn’t compete with the newly renovated wall panels. Was this whole risky trip going to end with him going back without doing anything?

He stood in the room, staring blankly for a while.

There was only one choice: to take the computer to the deck.

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